no fun intended.
The Summer of Shred is going off…Portand’s own Aaron Lutze is traveling the globe with Phil Sunbaum, Haro’s newest MTB rider…check out there progress here
The Handmade show was very cool, I will post up some photos as soon as the hard drives at the megascene start working again…
alot of projects in the work, new trails, new bikes,expect more up here soon…
I found it! Utopia! No I’m not talking about the charitable organization that delivers food to senile seniors across the US during Thanksgiving. I’m talking about the guide to the Portland area’s best roach coaches. Food is good. Cheap food is even better. And when it’s served right out of a disgusting trailer in a parking lot, it’s the best. Portland Food Carts, a guide to food carts in Portland, is your best resource for those delicious, dingy diners on wheels. So check it out at http://foodcartsportland.com/. It’s my charitable Thanksgiving gift to you.
The staff members here at the megascene are lazy and are wandering around the planet without any sense of direction. We’ll be back soon.
Interesting article from the NY Times.
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Stuart Isett for The New York Times
Trains with spots for riders to park their bikes.
Stuart Isett for The New York Times
Now, business owners like Tony Pereira, a bike builder, are part of the city’s growing cycling industry.
“In so many ways, it’s the center,” Ms. Peithman, 26, explained. “Bike City, U.S.A.”
Cyclists have long revered Portland for its bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure, including the network of bike lanes that the city began planning in the early 1970s. Now, riders are helping the city build a cycling economy.
There are, of course, huge national companies like Nike and Columbia Sportswear that have headquarters here and sell some cycling-related products, and there are well-known brands like Team Estrogen, which sells cycling clothing for women online from a Portland suburb.
Yet in a city often uncomfortable with corporate gloss, what is most distinctive about the emerging cycling industry here is the growing number of smaller businesses, whether bike frame builders or clothing makers, that often extol recycling as much as cycling, sustainability as much as success.
Like the local indie rock bands that insist they are apathetic about fame, many of the smaller local companies say craft, not money, is what drives them.
“All the frame builders I know got into this because they love bikes,” said Tony Pereira, a bike builder whose one-man operation has a 10-month waiting list, “not because they wanted to start a business.”
Mia Birk, a former city employee who helped lead Portland’s efforts to expand cycling in the 1990s, said the original goals were rooted in environmental and public health, not the economy.
“That wasn’t our driving force,” Ms. Birk said. “But it has been a result, and we’re comfortable saying it is a positive result.”
Ms. Birk now helps run a consulting firm, Alta Planning and Design, which advises other cities on how to become more bicycle-friendly. In a report for the City of Portland last year, the firm estimated that 600 to 800 people worked in the cycling industry in some form. A decade earlier, Ms. Birk said in an interview, the number would have been more like 200 and made up almost entirely of employees at retail bike stores.
Now, Ms. Birk said, the city is nurturing the cycling industry, and there are about 125 bike-related businesses in Portland, including companies that make bike racks, high-end components for racing bikes and aluminum for bikes mass-produced elsewhere. There are small operations that make cycling hats out of recycled fabric. Track, road and cyclo-cross races are held year-round, and state tourism groups promote cycling packages. There is Ms. Birk’s firm, which had two employees in Portland in 1999 and now has 14. There are nonprofit advocacy groups and Web sites, including www.bikeportland.org, that are devoted to cycling issues and events in Portland.
And then there is the growing, high-end handmade bike industry, which was made up of just one or two businesses a decade ago but now has more than 10. The Portland Development Commission is working with a handful of the bike builders to improve their business and accounting skills and help them network with one another.
This month, the city will be the host of a trade show featuring bike builders from Oregon, which locals say has more makers than any other state. And early next year, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show will bring its fourth annual event to Portland for the first time. It is expected to be the largest national show so far.
Sam Adams, a city commissioner in charge of transportation, joined development officials to help lure the show to Portland. It seemed a natural fit. The city regularly ranks at the top of Bicycling Magazine’s list of the best cycling cities and has the nation’s highest percentage of workers who commute by bike, about 3.5 percent, according to the Census Bureau. Drivers here are largely respectful of riders, and some businesses give up parking spaces to make way for bike racks.
“Our intentions are to be as sustainable a city as possible,” Mr. Adams said. “That means socially, that means environmentally and that means economically. The bike is great on all three of those factors. You just can’t get a better transportation return on your investment than you get with promoting bicycling.”
Although the city has worked to help drivers and riders share roadways, two cyclists were killed in October when they were hit by trucks, and questions persist over whether enough is being done to protect cyclists.
Mr. Adams said he was preparing a budget proposal that would spend $24 million to add 110 miles to the city’s existing 20-mile network of bike boulevards, which are meant to get cyclists away from streets busy with cars. Doing so could “double or triple ridership,” he said.
The streets were not always so crowded with cyclists. Andy Newlands, by most accounts the first person in Portland to start making bikes by hand, got into the business in the 1970s. Back then, he said, young men would come to him for help piecing together racing bikes. Now, he said, “More and more it’s some guy with a wife and kids and a BMW and all that, and he wants a handmade bike.”
Thirty years ago Mr. Newlands sold frames for under $300. Now a new bike might cost the buyer well over $5,000.
“There’s so much mass-produced stuff out there that there’s just kind of a little bit of a backlash,” he said. “People like a handmade product.”
Sacha White, who was a bike messenger before he started Vanilla Bicycles, one of the most prominent bike makers in Portland, said city officials embraced not only cycling but also the niche industry that has grown out of it, something he considered striking given the size of most operations. His company, among the largest of its kind, has six employees including himself.
“I think the biggest thing that’s come from the effort the city has put into this is the vote of confidence,” Mr. White said, speaking of bike riders and bike makers. “They want us here.”
Ms. Peithman, the recent Portland arrival, had lived in Chicago until September, where she worked for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a nonprofit advocacy group. She decided to move here on her own without any job prospects based “90 percent on the bike thing,” she said.
“I’m a long-term-thinking, spreadsheet kind of girl,” Ms. Peithman said. “This is the most rash thing I’ve ever done.”
{straight jacked from Ryan @ The Eastern Front } This is guerrilla marketing at it’s finest. The guys at Five Four clothing in LA took a cue from final scene in “The Thomas Crown Affair” and executed one of the coolest publicity stunts I’ve seen in a while. It involved 54 guys, 7 black suburbans and 1 day to pull off. Not bad. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a bunch of other companies doing things like this in the future.
I remember reading about this in like ride or something…they used some east coast riders…need to find that and post it
Unfortunately its a bit catchy and I will now listen to it. I am a bitch.
big plane
The new Airbus 380 was test flighted the other day with ‘real’ passengers. Question: Would you pay $500+ for the privellige to fly on the first flight of the planet’s biggest jet?
Answer: Absolutely, I would.
Are you kidding me? Had someone came up to me in the last year and offered me that opportunity, I’d have said yes in about a second. How could you pass up the chance to fly on Air-Titanic? Even if you died…. at least you were part of the research that provided analysis for the ‘next biggest plane,’ right?
However, it’s not like they just built this plane and said, ‘alright - who wants to go up?’. This shit was tested and tested. Of course, so was the Titanic….. but as of yet, there hasn’t been ANY iceberg collisions. This plane is actually quite safe. Airbus tried to get it out in 2005, but 2 years of quality-based delays provided us with the 2007 launch. Hold on, did I say “quality” delays? My mistake. What I meant to say, was that because Europe owns Airbus, it was more of he-said/she-said deal and b.s. held up the whole sha-bang. The plane was ready a year ago - but bureacracy held it up…. Again - what do I know? Not much, but…..
….. let’s all support the EU, NATO, NAFTA, AESAC, AFTA, attempted Medditerainian Union, attempted South American Union, attempted/ forced former S.S.R. republic Union, etc…… Just look at how the last 30 years of Free Trade Agreements have impacted the globe, and you’ll DEFINETLY agree with me.
Orangutan’s - Ho!!!!
Judge me how you will - but dropping a half-pot of macaroni and cheese, not 2 minutes after you’ve cooked it, is the most infuriating thing that has ever happened to me. I feel like I could punch a hole in the wall; like I could bite the ear off of my stuffed owl; like I could shoot a hippo or something….DAMN IT!!! As we speak, there’s a spread of mac’n cheese on my linoleum and I keep looking at it thinking, ‘Why? Why….why did you have to fuck me like that? Damn it man!’ My only intention was to move the pasta into another container (because eating out of the pan is kind of awkward)…….and now I’ve lost it all. I am SO FUCKING PISSED OFF. Fuck me. It’s like when you’re in high school and your girlfriend is giving you head - then the garage door opens and her mom and dad come back from the mall. There’s that quick ‘Oh shit’ moment, and you’re left with only the anticipation of what could have been (and she’s probably relieved). Fuck that shit - what a pisser.
Cold blooded……
Due to the overwhelmingly nuetral response to the B.O. B’gone, Angelo Industries is reprinting it’s original, award-winning Poopie Presents advertisement. Enjoy!
Are you sick of looking through crowded stores in search of that ‘perfect gift’? Tired of seeing dissappointment on the face of your friends or loved ones? Fed up with the inevitable question - “Do you have gift reciept?” Then Poopie Presents is for you.
Instead of giving a sweater next Christmas, give a Ghost Poopie! Trade flowers for the Felcher on Valentines Day! Bag those birthday blues with the Brontasaurus!
With over 30 different varieties you’re certain to find the right one.
The Ghost - Heard it, but not sure where it went. Flush but don’t see.
The Houdini - Gone, but the flush brings it back, only to be flushed again
The Brontasaurus - Poking out of the water
The Cannonball - Splashes down like a fat kid off a high-dive
The Buckshot - Small pile of pellets
The Eel - Swims right out
The Fish Basket - Convenietly cut and breaded into strips
The Stew - Thick and creamy; veggies are visible
The Chicken Noodle - Watery with small bits
The Hershey - Midnight black
The Alligator - Remains on top, ever watching…..
The Submarine - Repeatedly dives and surfaces
The Goldfish - Swims in the middle emitting bubbles
Heckle and Jeckle - Sometimes reffered to as ‘The Twins’ - enough said
The Barnacle - One distinct growth on the mass
The Guppy - A little swimmer with it’s own movement
The Exectutive - No muss, no fuss
The Continental - A single pangea of differnent shape, size and color
The Battering Ram - Takes a few tries to break out
The UFO - Not sure what it is, or where it came from
The Hedgehog - Several sharp bristles of justice
The Feltcher - Two competing consistencies
The General - One main form with little “soldiers” accompanying it
The FedEx - Fast, reliable service
The Commie - More red than brown
The Amtrak - 30 minutes between ’stops’
The B.P. - The only one chick’s dig; you’ll know it
The Mulatto - Half dark, half light
The Redwood - Sprouts from acorn to oak tree…. but slowly
The Miner - Gnarled, disfigured and cranky
The Szechuan - Spicy cookin’
The Aerosole - It just sprays and sprays
The Whale shark - Larger than a panda and heavier than a school bus
And the set up is minimal. All you have to do is excuse yourself before the candles are blown out, go to the bathroom and leave your personalized Poopie Present in the toliet for your friend or loved one to enjoy. The beauty of a Poopie Present is that the gift keeps on giving; the later they find it, the more they will delight in it.
Order now and recieve a free copy of Poopie Presents: Presents, a behind-the-scenes look at the Poopie Present factory in Pullman, WA. Just $4.99 + shipping and handling gets you a single Poopie Present, hand-crafted in fine Victorian detail, delivered to your door* with a smile. No checks or CoD’s.
Remember, for the next baby shower bail on the bottles and bet on The Barnicle!
I go through phases in music, like many people do, right now, I’m in this hip hop/rap phase. I think the reason I like this, right now, is because the rhythms tend to be simple and the beats hit hard. It’s that hard hitting, solid beat that really catches me, it’s more natural feeling, catchier. Yeah, I’m a simple man. I like simple music. As for “indie rock”, much of the music can tend to get too complicated, with less focus on a strong rhythm. Are they trying to lose the listener? I thought the idea was to catch listeners. That’s tricky issue though because that brings up the question of whether or not music is art or just another form of entertainment. I guess it should be both? Well anyways, I’m sick of this pretentious art aspect of the music industry. Pretentious, so-called “indie” scene. If you want indie, the guys in this series of vids are definitely independent. They are straight up business men, as well as artists, and they aren’t pretentious. Check this vid out! Screwed in Houston from the folks at viceland.com.
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